Egypt to build dry casks for storing spent nuclear fuel

CAIRO – 13 June 2024: The Nuclear Plants Authority submitted a request with the Egyptian Nuclear and Radiological Regulatory Authority (ENRRA) to obtain a construction permit to build dry casks for storing spent nuclear fuel for up to 100 years.

Casks are typically steel cylinders that are either welded or bolted closed. They store high-level radioactive waste after it was cooled in a spent-fuel pool for a duration ranging between one year and ten years.

The ENRRA had already allocated a land plot for those casks as the constructions in Dabaa Nuclear Power Plant will finish soon, and then the equipment will be installed after they are delivered by Russia.

Russia and Egypt signed in November 2015 an agreement to build a nuclear power plant worth $26 billion in Dabaa town located in Matrouh governorate western the country.

The plant will comprise four reactors, with a capacity of 1,200 megawatts each. The project is estimated to generate net revenues worth $264 billion over 60 years, which is the lifespan of the reactors at the plant.